Virtual disk drive system and method

ABSTRACT

A disk drive system and method capable of dynamically allocating data is provided. The disk drive system may include a RAID subsystem having a pool of storage, for example a page pool of storage that maintains a free list of RAIDs, or a matrix of disk storage blocks that maintain a null list of RAIDs, and a disk manager having at least one disk storage system controller. The RAID subsystem and disk manager dynamically allocate data across the pool of storage and a plurality of disk drives based on RAID-to-disk mapping. The RAID subsystem and disk manager determine whether additional disk drives are required, and a notification is sent if the additional disk drives are required. Dynamic data allocation and data progression allow a user to acquire a disk drive later in time when it is needed. Dynamic data allocation also allows efficient data storage of snapshots/point-in-time copies of virtual volume pool of storage, instant data replay and data instant fusion for data backup, recovery etc., remote data storage, and data progression, etc.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION(S)

This application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No.11/689,899, filed Mar. 22, 2007, which is a continuation of U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 10/918,329, filed on Aug. 13, 2004, which claimspriority to U.S. Provisional Patent Application, Ser. No. 60/495,204,filed Aug. 14, 2003; the entire contents of each are incorporated hereinby reference.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention generally relates to a disk drive system andmethod, and more particularly to a disk drive system having capabilitiessuch as dynamic data allocation and disk drive virtualization, etc.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

The existing disk drive systems have been designed in such a way that avirtual volume data storage space is statically associated with physicaldisks with specific size and location for storing data. These disk drivesystems need to know and monitor/control the exact location and size ofthe virtual volume of data storage space in order to store data. Inaddition, the systems often need bigger data storage space whereby moreRAID devices are added. However, often times these additional RAIDdevices are expensive and not required until extra data storage space isactually needed.

FIG. 14A illustrates a prior existing disk drive system having a virtualvolume data storage space associated with physical disks with specificsize and location for storing, reading/writing, and/or recovering data.The disk drive system statically allocates data based on the specificlocation and size of the virtual volume of data storage space. As aresult, emptied data storage space is not used, and extra and sometimesexpensive data storage devices, e.g. RAID devices, are acquired inadvance for storing, reading/writing, and/or recovering data in thesystem. These extra data storage space may not be needed and/or useduntil later in time.

Therefore, there is a need for an improved disk drive system and method.There is a further need for an efficient, dynamic data allocation anddisk drive space and time management system and method.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention provides an improved disk drive system and methodcapable of dynamically allocating data. The disk drive system mayinclude a RAID subsystem having a matrix of disk storage blocks and adisk manager having at least one disk storage system controller. TheRAID subsystem and disk manager dynamically allocate data across thematrix of disk storage blocks and a plurality of disk drives based onRAID-to-disk mapping. The RAID subsystem and disk manager determinewhether additional disk drives are required, and a notification is sentif the additional disk drives are required. Dynamic data allocationallows a user to acquire a disk drive later in time when it is needed.Dynamic data allocation also allows efficient data storage ofsnapshots/point-in-time copies of virtual volume matrix or pool of diskstorage blocks, instant data replay and data instant fusion for databackup, recovery etc., remote data storage, and data progression, etc.Data progression also allows deferral of a cheaper disk drive since itis purchased later in time.

In one embodiment, a matrix or pool of virtual volumes or disk storageblocks is provided to associate with physical disks. The matrix or poolof virtual volumes or disk storage blocks is monitored/controlleddynamically by the plurality of disk storage system controllers. In oneembodiment, the size of each virtual volume can be default or predefinedby a user, and the location of each virtual volume is default as null.The virtual volume is null until data is allocated. The data can beallocated in any grid of the matrix or pool (e.g. a “dot” in the gridonce data is allocated in the grid). Once the data is deleted, thevirtual volume is again available as indicated to be “null”. Thus, extradata storage space and sometimes expensive data storage devices, e.g.RAID devices, can be acquired later in time on a need basis.

In one embodiment, a disk manager may manage a plurality of disk storagesystem controllers, and a plurality of redundant disk storage systemcontrollers can be implemented to cover the failure of an operated diskstorage system controller.

In one embodiment, a RAID subsystem includes a combination of at leastone of RAID types, such as RAID-0, RAID-1, RAID-5, and RAID-10. It willbe appreciated that other RAID types can be used in alternative RAIDsubsystems, such as RAID-3, RAID-4, RAID-6, and RAID-7, etc.

The present invention also provides a dynamic data allocation methodwhich includes the steps of: providing a default size of a logical blockor disk storage block such that disk space of a RAID subsystem forms amatrix of disk storage blocks; writing data and allocating the data inthe matrix of the disk storage blocks; determining occupancy rate of thedisk space of the RAID subsystem based on historical occupancy rate ofthe disk space of the RAID subsystem; determining whether additionaldisk drives are required; and sending a notification to the RAIDsubsystem if the additional disk drives are required. In one embodiment,the notification is sent via an email.

One of the advantages of the disk drive system of the present inventionis that the RAID subsystem is capable of employing RAID techniquesacross a virtual number of disks. The remaining storage space is freelyavailable. Through monitoring storage space and determining occupancyrate of the storage space of the RAID subsystem, a user does not have toacquire a large sum of drives that are expensive but has no use at thetime of purchase. Thus, adding drives when they are actually needed tosatisfy the increasing demand of the storage space would significantlyreduce the overall cost of the disk drives. Meanwhile, the efficiency ofthe use of the drives is substantially improved.

Another advantage of the present invention is that the disk storagesystem controller is universal to any computer file system, not just toa specific computer file system.

The present invention also provides a method of data instant replay. Inone embodiment, the data instant replay method includes the steps ofproviding a default size of a logical block or disk storage block suchthat disk space of a RAID subsystem forms a page pool of storage or amatrix of disk storage blocks; automatically generating a snapshot ofvolumes of the page pool of storage or a snapshot of the matrix of diskstorage blocks at predetermined time intervals; and storing an addressindex of the snapshot or delta in the page pool of storage or the matrixof the disk storage blocks such that the snapshot or delta of the matrixof the disk storage blocks can be instantly located via the storedaddress index.

The data instant replay method automatically generates snapshots of theRAID subsystem at user defined time intervals, user configured dynamictime stamps, for example, every few minutes or hours, etc., or timedirected by the server. In case of a system failure or virus attack,these time-stamped virtual snapshots allow data instant replay and datainstant recovery in a matter of a few minutes or hours, etc. Thetechnique is also referred to as instant replay fusion, i.e. the datashortly before the crash or attack is fused in time, and the snapshotsstored before the crash or attack can be instantly used for futureoperation.

In one embodiment, the snapshots can be stored at a local RAID subsystemor at a remote RAID subsystem so that if a major system crash occurs dueto, for example a terrorist attack, the integrity of the data is notaffected, and the data can be instantly recovered.

Another advantage of the data instant replay method is that thesnapshots can be used for testing while the system remains itsoperation. Live data can be used for real-time testing.

The present invention also provides a system of data instant replayincluding a RAID subsystem and a disk manager having at least one diskstorage system controller. In one embodiment, the RAID subsystem anddisk manager dynamically allocate data across disk space of a pluralityof drives based on RAID-to-disk mapping, wherein the disk space of theRAID subsystem forms a matrix of disk storage blocks. The disk storagesystem controller automatically generates a snapshot of the matrix ofdisk storage blocks at predetermined time intervals and stores anaddress index of the snapshot or delta in the matrix of the disk storageblocks such that the snapshot or delta of the matrix of the disk storageblocks can be instantly located via the stored address index.

In one embodiment, the disk storage system controller monitors frequencyof data use from the snapshots of the matrix of the disk storage blocksand applies an aging rule such that the less frequently used or accesseddata is moved to the less expensive RAID subsystem. Similarly, when thedata in the less expensive RAID subsystem starts to be used morefrequently, the controller moves the data to the more expensive RAIDsubsystem. Accordingly, a user is able to choose a desired RAIDsubsystem portfolio to meet its own storage needs. Therefore, the costof the disk drive system can be significantly reduced and dynamicallycontrolled by a user.

These and other features and advantages of the present invention willbecome apparent to those skilled in the art from the following detaileddescription, wherein it is shown and described illustrative embodimentsof the invention, including best modes contemplated for carrying out theinvention. As it will be realized, the invention is capable ofmodifications in various obvious aspects, all without departing from thespirit and scope of the present invention. Accordingly, the drawings anddetailed description are to be regarded as illustrative in nature andnot restrictive.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 illustrates one embodiment of a disk drive system in a computerenvironment in accordance with the principles of the present invention.

FIG. 2 illustrates one embodiment of a dynamic data allocation having apage pool of storage for a RAID subsystem of a disk drive in accordancewith the principles of the present invention.

FIG. 2A illustrates a conventional data allocation in a RAID subsystemof a disk drive system.

FIG. 2B illustrates a data allocation in a RAID subsystem of a diskdrive system in accordance with the principles of the present invention.

FIG. 2C illustrates a dynamic data allocation method in accordance withthe principles of the present invention.

FIGS. 3A and 3B are schematic views of a snapshot of a disk storageblock of a RAID subsystem at a plurality of time-intervals in accordancewith the principles of the present invention.

FIG. 3C illustrates a data instant replay method in accordance with theprinciples of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a schematic view of a data instant fusion function by usingsnapshots of disk storage blocks of a RAID subsystem in accordance withthe principles of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a schematic view of a local-remote data replication andinstant replay function by using snapshots of disk storage blocks of aRAID subsystem in accordance with the principles of the presentinvention.

FIG. 6 illustrates a schematic view of a snapshot using the same RAIDinterface to perform I/O and concatenating multiple RAID devices into avolume in accordance with the principles of the present invention.

FIG. 7 illustrates one embodiment of a snapshot structure in accordancewith the principles of the present invention.

FIG. 8 illustrates one embodiment of a PITC life cycle in accordancewith the principles of the present invention.

FIG. 9 illustrates one embodiment of a PITC table structure having amulti-level index in accordance with the principles of the presentinvention.

FIG. 10 illustrates one embodiment of recovery of a PITC table inaccordance with the principles of the present invention.

FIG. 11 illustrates one embodiment of a write process having an ownedpage sequence and a non-owned page sequence in accordance with theprinciples of the present invention.

FIG. 12 illustrates an exemplary snapshot operation in accordance withthe principles of the present invention.

FIG. 13A illustrates a prior existing disk drive system having a virtualvolume data storage space associated with physical disks with specificsize and location for statically allocating data.

FIG. 13B illustrates a volume logical block mapping in the priorexisting disk drive system of FIG. 13A.

FIG. 14A illustrates one embodiment of a disk drive system having avirtual volume matrix of disk storage blocks for dynamically allocatingdata in the system in accordance with the principles of the presentinvention.

FIG. 14B illustrates one embodiment of dynamic data allocation in thevirtual volume matrix of disk storage blocks as shown in FIG. 14A.

FIG. 14C illustrates a schematic view of a volume-RAID page remapping ofone embodiment of the virtual volume page pool of storage in accordancewith the principles of the present invention.

FIG. 15 illustrates an example of three disk drives mapped to aplurality of disk storage blocks of a RAID subsystem in accordance withthe principles of the present invention.

FIG. 16 illustrates an example of remapping of the disk drive storageblocks after adding a disk drive to three disk drives as shown in FIG.15.

FIG. 17 illustrates one embodiment of accessible data pages in a dataprogression operation in accordance with the principles of the presentinvention.

FIG. 18 illustrates a flow chart of one embodiment of a data progressionprocess in accordance with the principles of the present invention.

FIG. 19 illustrates one embodiment of compressed page layout inaccordance with the principles of the present invention.

FIG. 20 illustrates one embodiment of data progression in a high leveldisk drive system in accordance with the principles of the presentinvention.

FIG. 21 illustrates one embodiment of external data flow in thesubsystem in accordance with the principles of the present invention.

FIG. 22 illustrates one embodiment of internal data flow in thesubsystem.

FIG. 23 illustrates one embodiment of each subsystem independentlymaintaining coherency.

FIG. 24 illustrates one embodiment of a mixed RAID waterfall dataprogression in accordance with the principles of the present invention.

FIG. 25 illustrates one embodiment of multiple free lists of a page poolof storage in accordance with the principles of the present invention.

FIG. 26 illustrates one embodiment of a database example in accordancewith the principles of the present invention.

FIG. 27 illustrates one embodiment of a MRI image example in accordancewith the principles of the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

The present invention provides an improved disk drive system and methodcapable of dynamically allocating data. The disk drive system mayinclude a RAID subsystem having a page pool of storage that maintains afree list of RAIDs or alternatively, a matrix of disk storage blocks,and a disk manager having at least one disk storage system controller.The RAID subsystem and disk manager dynamically allocate data across thepage pool of storage or the matrix of disk storage blocks and aplurality of disk drives based on RAID-to-disk mapping. The RAIDsubsystem and disk manager determine whether additional disk drives arerequired, and a notification is sent if the additional disk drives arerequired. Dynamic data allocation allows a user to acquire a disk drivelater in time when it is needed. Dynamic data allocation also allowsefficient data storage of snapshots/point-in-time copies of virtualvolume matrix or pool of disk storage blocks, instant data replay anddata instant fusion for data backup, recovery etc., remote data storage,and data progression, etc. Data progression also allows deferral of acheaper disk drive since it is purchased later in time.

FIG. 1 illustrates one embodiment of a disk drive system 100 in acomputer environment 102 in accordance with the principles of thepresent invention. As shown in FIG. 1, the disk drive system 100includes a RAID subsystem 104 and a disk manager 106 having at least onedisk storage system controller (FIG. 16). The RAID subsystem 104 anddisk manager 106 dynamically allocate data across disk space of aplurality of disk drives 108 based on RAID-to-disk mapping. In addition,the RAID subsystem 104 and disk manager 106 are capable of determiningwhether additional disk drives are required based on the data allocationacross disk space. If the additional disk drives are required, anotification is sent to a user so that additional disk space may beadded if desired.

The disk drive system 100 having a dynamic data allocation (or referredto “disk drive virtualization”) in accordance with the principles of thepresent invention is illustrated in FIG. 2 in one embodiment and FIGS.14A and 14B in another embodiment. As shown in FIG. 2, a disk storagesystem 110 includes a page pool of storage 112, i.e. a pool of datastorage including a list of data storage space that is free to storedata. The page pool 112 maintains a free list of RAID devices 114 andmanages read/write assignments based on user's requests. User'srequested data storage volumes 116 are sent to the page pool 112 to getstorage space. Each volume can request same or different classes ofstorage devices with same or different RAID levels, e.g. RAID 10, RAID5, RAID 0, etc.

Another embodiment of dynamic data allocation of the present inventionis shown in FIGS. 14A and 14B, where a disk storage system 1400 having aplurality of disk storage system controllers 1402 and a matrix of diskstorage blocks 1404 controlled by the plurality of disk storage systemcontrollers 1402 dynamically allocates data in the system in accordancewith the principles of the present invention. The matrix of virtualvolumes or blocks 1404 is provided to associate with physical disks. Thematrix of virtual volumes or blocks 1404 is monitored/controlleddynamically by the plurality of disk storage system controllers 1402. Inone embodiment, the size of each virtual volume 1404 can be predefined,for example 2 Megabytes, and the location of each virtual volume 1404 isdefault as null. Each of the virtual volumes 1404 is null until data isallocated. The data can be allocated in any grid of the matrix or pool(e.g. a “dot” in the grid once data is allocated in the grid). Once thedata is deleted, the virtual volume 1404 is again available as indicatedto be “null”. Thus, extra and sometimes expensive data storage devices,e.g. RAID devices, can be acquired later in time on a need basis.

Accordingly, the RAID subsystem is capable of employing RAID techniquesacross a virtual number of disks. The remaining storage space is freelyavailable. Through monitoring storage space and determining occupancyrate of the storage space of the RAID subsystem, a user does not have toacquire a large sum of drives that are expensive but has no use at thetime of purchase. Thus, adding drives when they are actually needed tosatisfy the increasing demand of the storage space would significantlyreduce the overall cost of the disk drives. Meanwhile, the efficiency ofthe use of the drives is substantially improved.

Also, dynamic data allocation of the disk drive system of the presentinvention allows efficient data storage of snapshots/point-in-timecopies of virtual volume page pool of storage or virtual volume matrixof disk storage blocks, instant data replay and data instant fusion fordata recovery and remote data storage, and data progression.

The above features and advantages resulted from a dynamic dataallocation system and method and the implementation thereof in the diskdrive system 100 are discussed below in details:

Dynamic Data Allocation

FIG. 2A illustrates a conventional data allocation in a RAID subsystemof a disk drive system, whereby emptied data storage space is captiveand not capable of being allocated for data storage.

FIG. 2B illustrates a data allocation in a RAID subsystem of a diskdrive system in accordance with the principles of the present invention,whereby emptied data storage that is available for data storage is mixedtogether to form a page pool, e.g. a single page pool in one embodimentof the present invention.

FIG. 2C illustrates a dynamic data allocation method 200 in accordancewith the principles of the present invention. The dynamic dataallocation method 200 includes a step 202 of defining a default size ofa logical block or disk storage block such that disk space of a RAIDsubsystem forms a matrix of disk storage blocks; and a step 204 ofwriting data and allocating the data in a disk storage block of thematrix where the disk storage block indicates “null”. The method furtherincludes a step 206 of determining occupancy rate of the disk space ofthe RAID subsystem based on historical occupancy rate of the disk spaceof the RAID subsystem; and a step 208 of determining whether additionaldisk drives are required and if so, sending a notification to the RAIDsubsystem. In one embodiment, the notification is sent via an email.Further, the size of the disk storage block can be set as a default andchangeable by a user.

In one embodiment, dynamic data allocation, sometimes referred to as“virtualization” or “disk space virtualization”, efficiently handles alarge number of read and write requests per second. The architecture mayrequire the interrupt handlers to call a cache subsystem directly.Dynamic data allocation may not optimize requests as it does not queuethem, but it may have a large number of pending requests at a time.

Dynamic data allocation may also maintain data integrity and protect thecontents of the data for any controller failure. To do so, dynamic dataallocation writes state information to RAID device for reliable storage.

Dynamic data allocation may further maintain the order of read and writerequests and complete read or write requests in the exact order that therequests were received. Dynamic data allocation provides for maximumsystem availability and supports remote replication of data to adifferent geographical location.

In addition, dynamic data allocation provides recovery capabilities fromdata corruption. Through snapshot, a user may view the state of a diskin the past.

Dynamic data allocation manages RAID devices and provides a storageabstraction to create and expand large devices.

Dynamic data allocation presents a virtual disk device to the servers;the device is called a volume. To the server, the volume acts the same.It may return different information for serial number, but the volumesbehave essentially like a disk drive. A volume provides a storageabstraction of multiple RAID devices to create a larger dynamic volumedevice. A volume includes multiple RAID devices, allowing for theefficient use of disk space.

FIG. 21 illustrates a prior existing volume logical block mapping. FIG.14C shows a volume-RAID page remapping of one embodiment of the virtualvolume page pool of storage in accordance with the principles of thepresent invention. Each volume is broken into a set of pages, e.g. 1, 2,3, etc., and each RAID is broken into a set of pages. The volume pagesize and the RAID page size can be the same in one embodiment.Accordingly, one example of the volume-RAID page remapping of thepresent invention is that page #1 using a RAID-2 is mapped to RAID page#1.

Dynamic data allocation maintains data integrity of the volumes. Data iswritten to the volumes and confirmed to the server. Data integritycovers various controller configurations including stand alone andredundant through a controller failure. Controller failure includespower failure, power cycle, software exception, and hard reset. Dynamicdata allocation generally does not handle disk drive failures which arecovered by RAID.

Dynamic data allocation provides the highest levels of data abstractionfor the controller. It accepts requests from the front end andultimately uses RAID devices to write the data to disks.

Dynamic data allocation includes a number of internal subsystems:

-   -   Cache—Smoothes read and write operations to a volume by        providing rapid response time to the server, and bundling writes        to data plug-in.    -   Configuration—Contains the methods to create, delete, retrieve,        and modify data allocation objects. Provides components to        create a toolbox for higher level system applications.    -   Data Plug-In—Distributes volume read and write requests to        various subsystems depending on volume configuration.    -   RAID Interface—Provides RAID device abstraction to create larger        volumes to the user and other dynamic data allocation        subsystems.    -   Copy/Mirror/Swap—Replicates volume data to local and remote        volumes. In one embodiment, it may only copy the blocks written        by the server.    -   Snapshot—Provides incremental volume recovery of data. It        instantly creates View Volumes of past volume states.    -   Proxy Volume—Implements request communication to a remote        destination volume to support the Remote Replication.    -   Billing—Ability to charge users for allocated storage, activity,        performance, and recovery of data.

Dynamic data allocation also logs any errors and significant changes inconfiguration.

FIG. 21 illustrates one embodiment of external data flow in thesubsystem. External requests come from Front End. Requests include getvolume information, read and write. All requests have the volume ID.Volume information is handled by the volume configuration subsystem.Read and write requests include the LBA. Write requests also include thedata.

Depending on volume configuration, dynamic data allocation passes arequest to a number of external layers. Remote replication passesrequests to the front end, destined for a remote destination volume. TheRAID Interface passes requests to RAID. Copy/mirror/swap passes requestsback to dynamic data allocation to a destination volume.

FIG. 22 illustrates one embodiment of internal data flow in thesubsystem. The internal data flow starts with caching. Caching may placewrite requests into the cache or pass the requests directly to dataplug-in. The cache supports direct DMA from front end HBA devices.Requests may be completed quickly and responses returned to the server.The data plug-in manager is the center of request flow below the cache.For each volume, it calls registered subsystem objects for each request.

Dynamic data allocation subsystems that affect data integrity mayrequire support for controller coherency. As shown in FIG. 23, eachsubsystem independently maintains coherency. Coherency updates avoidcopying data blocks across the coherency link. Cache coherency mayrequire copying data to the peer controller.

Disk Storage System Controller

FIG. 14A illustrates a disk storage system 1400 having a plurality ofdisk storage system controllers 1402 and a matrix of disk storage blocksor virtual volumes 1404 controlled by the plurality of disk storagesystem controllers 1402 for dynamically allocating data in the system inaccordance with the principles of the present invention. FIG. 14Billustrates one embodiment of dynamic data allocation in the virtualvolume matrix of disk storage blocks or virtual volumes 1404.

In one operation, the disk storage system 1400 automatically generates asnapshot of the matrix of disk storage blocks or virtual volumes 1404 atpredetermined time intervals and stores an address index of the snapshotor delta in the matrix of the disk storage blocks or virtual volumes1404 such that the snapshot or delta of the matrix of the disk storageblocks or virtual volumes 1404 can be instantly located via the storedaddress index.

Further in one operation, the disk storage system controller 1402monitors frequency of data use from the snapshots of the matrix of thedisk storage blocks 1404 and applies an aging rule such that the lessfrequently used or accessed data is moved to the less expensive RAIDsubsystem. Similarly, when the data in the less expensive RAID subsystemstarts to be used more frequently, the controller moves the data to themore expensive RAID subsystem. Accordingly, a user is able to choose adesired RAID subsystem portfolio to meet its own storage needs.Therefore, the cost of the disk drive system can be significantlyreduced and dynamically controlled by a user.

RAID-to-Disk Mapping

A RAID subsystem and disk manager dynamically allocate data across diskspace of a plurality of disk drives based on RAID-to-disk mapping. Inone embodiment, the RAID subsystem and disk manager determine whetheradditional disk drives are required, and a notification is sent if theadditional disk drive is required.

FIG. 15 illustrates an example of three disk drives 108 (FIG. 1) mappedto a plurality of disk storage blocks 1502-1512 in a RAID-5 subsystem1500 in accordance with the principles of the present invention.

FIG. 16 illustrates an example of remapping 1600 of the disk drivestorage blocks after adding a disk drive 1602 to three disk drives 108as shown in FIG. 15.

Disk Manager

The disk manager 106, as shown in FIG. 1, generally manages disks anddisk arrays, including grouping/resource pooling, abstraction of diskattributes, formatting, addition/subtraction of disks, and tracking ofdisk service times and error rates. The disk manager 106 does notdistinguish the differences between various models of disks and presentsa generic storage device for the RAID component. The disk manager 106also provides grouping capabilities which facilitate the construction ofRAID groups with specific characteristics such as 10,000 RPM disks, etc.

In one embodiment of the present invention, the disk manager 106 is atleast three-fold: abstraction, configuration, and I/O optimization. Thedisk manager 106 presents “disks” to upper layers which could be, forexample, locally or remotely attached physical disk drives, or remotelyattached disk systems.

The common underlying characteristic is that any of these devices couldbe the target of I/O operations. The abstraction service provides auniform data path interface for the upper layers, particularly the RAIDsubsystem, and provides a generic mechanism for the administrator tomanage target devices.

The disk manager 106 of the present invention also provides diskgrouping capabilities to simplify administration and configuration.Disks can be named, and placed into groups, which can also be named.Grouping is a powerful feature which simplifies tasks such as migratingvolumes from one group of disks to another, dedicating a group of disksto a particular function, specifying a group of disks as spares, etc.

The disk manager also interfaces with devices, such as a SCSI devicesubsystem which is responsible for detecting the presence of externaldevices. The SCSI device subsystem is capable, at least for fiberchannel/SCSI type devices, of determining a subset of devices which areblock-type target devices. It is these devices which are managed andabstracted by the disk manager.

Further, the disk manager is responsible for responding to flow controlfrom a SCSI device layer. The disk manager has queuing capabilities,which presents the opportunity to aggregate I/O requests as a method tooptimize the throughput of the disk drive system.

Furthermore, the disk manager of the present invention manages aplurality of disk storage system controllers. Also, a plurality ofredundant disk storage system controllers can be implemented to coverthe failure of an operated disk storage system controller. The redundantdisk storage system controllers are also managed by the disk manager.

Disk Manager's Relationship to the Other Subsystems

The disk manager interacts with several other subsystems. The RAIDsubsystem is the major client of the services provided by the diskmanager for data path activities. The RAID subsystem uses the diskmanager as the exclusive path to disks for I/O. The RAID system alsolistens for events from the disk manager to determine the presence andoperational status of disks. The RAID subsystem also works with the diskmanager to allocate extents for the construction of RAID devices.Management control listens for disk events to learn the existence ofdisks and to learn of operational status changes. In one embodiment ofthe present invention, the RAID subsystem 104 may include a combinationof at least one of RAID types, such as RAID-0, RAID-1, RAID-5, andRAID-10. It will be appreciated that other RAID types can be used inalternative RAID subsystems, such as RAID-3, RAID-4, RAID-6, and RAID-7,etc.

In one embodiment of the present invention, the disk manager utilizesthe services of configuration access to store persistent configurationand present transient read-only information such as statistics to thepresentations layers. The disk manager registers handlers withconfiguration access for access to these parameters.

The disk manager also utilizes the services of the SCSI device layer tolearn of the existence and operational status of block devices, and hasan I/O path to these block devices. The disk manager queries the SCSIdevice subsystem about devices as a supporting method to uniquelyidentify disks.

Data Instant Replay and Data Instant Fusion

The present invention also provides a method of data instant replay anddata instant fusion. FIGS. 3A and 3B illustrate schematic views of asnapshot of a disk storage block of a RAID subsystem at a plurality oftime-intervals in accordance with the principles of the presentinvention. FIG. 3C illustrates a data instant replay method 300 whichincludes a step 302 of defining a default size of a logical block ordisk storage block such that disk space of a RAID subsystem forms a pagepool of storage or a matrix of disk storage blocks; a step 304 ofautomatically generating a snapshot of volumes of the page pool or asnapshot of the matrix of disk storage blocks at predetermined timeintervals; and a step 306 of storing an address index of the snapshot ordelta in the page pool of storage or the matrix of the disk storageblocks such that the snapshot or delta of the matrix of the disk storageblocks can be instantly located via the stored address index.

As shown in FIG. 3B, at each predetermined time interval, e.g. 5minutes, such as T1 (12:00 PM), T2 (12:05 PM), T3 (12:10 PM), and T4(12:15 PM), a snapshot of the page pool of storage or the matrix of diskstorage blocks are automatically generated. The address indexes of thesnapshots or delta in the page pool of storage or the matrix of the diskstorage blocks are stored in the page pool of storage or the matrix ofthe disk storage blocks such that the snapshot or delta of the page poolof storage or the matrix of the disk storage blocks can be instantlylocated via the stored address index.

Accordingly, the data instant replay method automatically generatessnapshots of the RAID subsystem at a user defined time intervals, userconfigured dynamic time stamps, for example, every few minutes or hours,etc., or time directed by the server. In case of a system failure orvirus attack, these time-stamped virtual snapshots allow data instantreplay and data instant recovery in a matter of a few minutes or hours,etc. The technique is also referred to as instant replay fusion, i.e.the data shortly before the crash or attack is fused in time, and thesnapshots stored before the crash or attack can be instantly used forfuture operation.

FIG. 4 further illustrates a schematic view of a data instant fusionfunction 400 by using multiple snapshots of disk storage blocks of aRAID subsystem in accordance with the principles of the presentinvention. At T3, a parallel chain T3′-T5′ of snapshots are generated,whereby data that are fused and/or recovered by the fused data T3′ canbe used to replace the to-be-fused data at T4. Similarly, a plurality ofparallel chains T3″, T4′ of snapshots can be generated to replace theto-be-fused data at T4′-T5′ and T4″-T5″. In an alternative embodiment,the snapshots at T4, T4′-T5′, T5″ can still be stored in the page poolor the matrix.

The snapshots can be stored at a local RAID subsystem or at a remoteRAID subsystem so that if a major system crash occurs due to, forexample a terrorist attack, the integrity of the data is not affected,and the data can be instantly recovered. FIG. 5 illustrates a schematicview of a local-remote data replication and instant replay function 500by using snapshots of disk storage blocks of a RAID subsystem inaccordance with the principles of the present invention.

Remote replication performs the service of replicating volume data to aremote system. It attempts to keep the local and remote volumes asclosely synchronized as possible. In one embodiment, the data of theremote volume may not mirror a perfect copy of the data of the localvolume. Network connectivity and performance may cause the remote volumeto be out of synchronization with a local volume.

Another feature of the data instant replay and data instant fusionmethod is that the snapshots can be used for testing while the systemremains its operation. Live data can be used for real-time testing.

Snapshot and Point-in-Time Copies (PITC)

An example of data instant replay is to utilize snapshots of diskstorage blocks of a RAID subsystem in accordance with the principles ofthe present invention. Snapshot records write operations to a volume sothat a view may be created to see the contents of a volume in the past.Snapshot thus also supports data recovery by creating views to aprevious Point-in-Time Copy (PITC) of a volume.

The core of a snapshot implements create, coalesce, management, and I/Ooperations of the snapshot. Snapshot monitors writes to a volume andcreates Point-in-Time Copies (PITC) for access through view volumes. Itadds a Logical Block Address (LBA) remapping layer to a data path withinthe virtualization layer. This is another layer of virtual LBA mappingwithin the I/O path. The PITC may not copy all volume information, andit may merely modify a table that the remapping uses.

Snapshot tracks changes to volume data and provides the ability to viewthe volume data from a previous point-in-time. Snapshot performs thisfunction by maintaining a list of delta writes for each PITC.

Snapshot provides multiple methods for PITC profiles including:application initiated, and time initiated. Snapshot provides the abilityfor the application to create PITC. The applications control thecreation through the API on the server, which is delivered to thesnapshot API. Also, snapshot provides the ability to create a timeprofile.

Snapshot may not implement a journaling system or recover all writes toa volume. Snapshot may only keep the last write to a single addresswithin a PITC window. Snapshot allows a user to create PITC that coversa defined short period of time, such as minutes or hours, etc. To handlefailures, snapshot writes all information to disk. Snapshot maintainsvolume data page pointers containing the delta writes. Since the tablesprovide the map to the volume data, and without it the volume data isinaccessible, the table information must handle controller failurecases.

View volume functions provide access to a PITC. View volume functionsmay attach to any PITC within the volume, except the active PITC.Attaching to a PITC is a relatively quick operation. Uses of view volumefunctions include testing, training, backup, and recovery. The viewvolume functions allow write operation and do not modify the underlyingPITC it is based on.

In one embodiment, the snapshot is designed to optimize performance andease use at the expense of disk space:

-   -   Snapshot provides speedy response time for user requests. User        requests include I/O, create a PITC, and create/delete a view        volume. To achieve this snapshot uses more disk space to store        table information than the minimum required. For I/O, snapshot        summarizes the current state of a volume into a single table, so        that all read and write requests may be satisfied by a single        table. Snapshot reduces the impact on normal I/O operations as        much as possible. Second, for view volume operations snapshot        uses the same table mechanism as the main volume data path.    -   Snapshot minimizes the amount of data copied. To do this,        snapshot maintains a table of pointers for each PITC. Snapshot        copies and moves pointers, but it does not move the data on the        volume.    -   Snapshot manages the volume using fixed-size data-pages.        Tracking individual sectors may require massive amounts of        memory for a single reasonable sized volume. By using a data        page larger than a sector certain pages may contain a percentage        of information directly duplicated from another page.    -   Snapshot uses the data space on the volume to store the        data-page tables. The lookup tables are reproduced after a        controller failure. The lookup tables allocate pages and        sub-divide them.    -   Snapshot handles controller failure by requiring that a volume        using snapshot operate on a single controller in one embodiment.        This embodiment requires no coherency. All changes to the volume        are recorded on disk or to reliable cache for recovery by a        replacement controller. Recovery from a controller failure        requires that the snapshot information be read from disk in one        embodiment.    -   Snapshot uses the virtualization RAID interface to access the        storage. Snapshot may use multiple RAID devices as a single data        space.    -   Snapshot supports ‘n’ PITC per volume and ‘m’ views per volume.        The limitation on ‘n’ and ‘m’ is a function of the disk space        and memory of the controller.

Volume and Volume Allocation/Layout

Snapshots add a LBA remapping layer to a volume. The remapping uses theI/O request LBA and the lookup table to convert the address to the datapage. As shown in FIG. 6, a presented volume using snapshot behaves thesame as a volume without snapshot. It has a linear LBA space and handlesI/O requests. Snapshot uses the RAID interface to perform I/O andincludes multiple RAID devices into a volume. In one embodiment, thesize of the RAID devices for a snapshot volume is not the size of thepresented volume. The RAID devices allow snapshot to expand the spacefor data pages within the volume.

A new volume, with snapshot enabled at the inception, only needs toinclude space for the new data pages. Snapshot does not create a list ofpages to place in the bottom level PITC. The bottom level PITC is emptyin this case. At allocation, all PITC pages are on the free list. Bycreating a volume with snapshot enabled at the inception, it mayallocate less physical space than the volume presents. Snapshot tracksthe writes to the volume. In one embodiment of the present invention,the NULL volume is not copied and/or stored in the page pool or matrix,thereby increasing the efficiency of the use of the storage space.

In one embodiment, for both allocation schemes, PITC places a virtualNULL volume at the bottom of the list. Reads to the NULL volume returnblocks of zero. The NULL volume handles the sectors not previouslywritten by the server. Writes to the NULL volume can not occur. Thevolume uses a NULL volume for reads to unwritten sectors.

The number of free pages depends on the size of the volume, the numberof PITC, and the expected rate of data change. The system determines thenumber of pages to allocate for a given volume. The number of data pagesmay expand over time. Expansion may support a more rapid change in datathan expected, more PITC, or a larger volume. New pages are added to thefree list. The addition of pages to the free list may occurautomatically.

Snapshot uses data pages to manage the volume space. Each data page mayinclude megabytes of data. Using the operating system tends to write anumber of sectors in the same area of a volume. Memory requirements alsodictate that snapshot uses pages to manage volumes. Maintaining a single32-bit pointer for each sector of a one-terabyte volume may requireeight gigabytes of RAM. Different volumes may have different page size.

FIG. 7 illustrates one embodiment of a snapshot structure. Snapshot addsa number of objects to the volume structure. Additional objects includethe PITC, a pointer to the active PITC, the data page free list, childview volumes, and PITC coalesce objects.

-   -   Active PITC (AP) pointer is maintained by the volume. The AP        handles the mapping of read and writes requests to the volume.        The AP contains a summary of the current location of all the        data within the volume.    -   The data pages free list tracks the available pages on the        volume.    -   The optional child view volumes provide access to the volume        PITC. The view volumes contain their own AP to record writes to        the PITC, while not modifying the underlying data. A volume may        support multiple child view volumes.    -   Snapshot coalesce objects temporarily link two PITC for the        purpose of removing the previous PITC. Coalescing of PITC        involves moving the ownership of data pages and freeing of data        pages.    -   A PITC contains a table and data pages for the pages written        while the PITC was active. The PITC contains a freeze time stamp        at which point the PITC stopped accepting write requests. The        PITC also contains a Time-to-Live value that determines at what        time the PITC will coalesce.

Also, snapshot summarizes the data page pointers for the entire volume,at the time a PITC is taken to provide predictable read and writeperformance. Other solutions may require reads to examine multiple PITCto find the newest pointer. These solutions require table cachingalgorithm but has worst-case performance.

Snapshot summarizing in the present invention also reduces theworst-case memory usage of table. It may require that the entire tablebe loaded into memory, but it may require only a single table loaded.

The summary includes pages owned by the current PITC and may includepages from all previous PITC. To determine which pages the PITC maywrite, it tracks page ownership for each data page. It also tracksownership for a coalesce process. To handle this, the data page pointerincludes the page index.

FIG. 8 illustrates one embodiment of a PITC life cycle. Each PITC goesthrough a number of following states before it is committed asread-only:

1. Create table—Upon creation, table is created.

2. Commit to disk—This generates the storage on the disk for the PITC.By writing the table at this point, it guarantees that the requiredspace to store the table information is allocated before the PITC istaken. At the same time, the PITC object is also committed to the disk.

3. Accept I/O—It has become the active PITC (AP)—It now handles readsand writes requests for the volume. This is the only state that acceptswrites requests to the table. The PITC generates an event that it is nowactive.

4. Commit the Table to Disk—The PITC is no longer the AP, and no longeraccepts additional pages. A new AP has taken over. After this point, thetable will not change unless it is removed during a coalesce operation.It is read-only. At this point, the PITC generates an event that it isfrozen and committed. Any service may listen to the event.

5. Release table memory—Frees the memory that the table required. Thisstep also clears the log to state that all changes are written to disk.

The top-level PITC for a volume or a view volume is called the activePITC (AP). The AP satisfies all read and write requests to the volume.The AP is the only PITC for the volume that may accept write requests.The AP contains a summary of data page pointers for the entire volume.

The AP may be the destination, not the source, for a coalesce process.Being the destination, the AP increases the number of owned pages, butit does not change the view of the data.

For volume expansion, the AP immediately grows with the volume. The newpages point to the NULL volume. Non-AP PITC does not requiremodification for volume expansion.

Each PITC maintains a table to map an incoming LBA to a data pagepointer to the underlying volume. The table includes pointers to datapages. The table needs to address more physical disk space thanpresented logical space. FIG. 9 illustrates one embodiment of a tablestructure having a multi-level index. The structure decodes the volumeLBA to a data-page pointer. Each level decodes increasing lesssignificant bits of the address as shown in FIG. 9. The structure of thetable provides for fast lookup and the ability to expand the volume. Forfast lookup, the multi-level index structure keeps the table shallowwith multiple entries at each level. The index performs array lookups ateach level. To support volume expansion, the multi-level index structureallows for the addition of another layer to support expansion. Volumeexpansion in this case is the expansion of the LBA count presented tothe upper layer, and not the actual amount of storage space allocatedfor the volume.

The multi-level index contains a summary of the entire volume data pageremapping. Each PITC contains a complete remapping list for the volumeat the point-in-time it is committed.

The multi-level index structure uses different entry types for thelevels of the table. The different entry types support the need to readthe information from the disk, as well as store it in memory. The bottomlevel entries may only contain data page pointers. The top and middlelevel entries contain two arrays, one for the LBA of the next leveltable entry, and a memory pointer to the table.

As the presented volume size expands, the size of previous PITC tablesdoes not need to increase, and the tables do not need to be modified.The information in the table may not change, since it is read only, andthe expand process modifies the table by adding NULL page pointers tothe end. Snapshot does not directly present the tables from previousPITC to the user.

An I/O operation asks the table to map an LBA to a data page pointer.The I/O then multiplies the data page pointer times the data page sizeto get the LBA of the underlying RAID. In one embodiment, data page sizeis a power of two.

The table provides an API to remap LBA, add page, and coalesce table.

Snapshot uses the data pages to store the PITC object and the LBAmapping tables. The tables directly access the RAID interface for I/O toits table entries. The table minimizes modification when reading andwriting the table to the RAID device. Without modification, it becomespossible to read and write the table information directly into tableentry structures. This reduces copies needed for I/O. Snapshot may use achange log to prevent the creation of hot-spots on the disk. A hot-spotis a location that is used repeatedly to track updates to the volume.The change log records updates to the PITC table, and the free list forthe volume. During recovery, snapshot uses the change log to re-createthe in-memory AP and free list. FIG. 10 illustrates one embodiment ofrecovery of a table, which demonstrates the relationship among thein-memory AP, the on-disk AP, and the change log. It also shows the samerelationship for the free list. The in-memory AP table may be rebuiltfrom the on-disk AP table and the log. For any controller failure, theAP is rebuilt by reading the on-disk AP and applying the log changes toit. The change log uses different physical resources depending on systemconfiguration. For multiple-controller systems, the change log relies onbattery-backup cache memory for storage. Using cache memory allowssnapshot to reduce the number of table writes to disk while maintainingdata integrity. The change log replicates to a backup controller forrecovery. For single-controller systems, the change log writes allinformation to the disks. This has the side-effect of creating ahot-spot on the disk at the log location. This allows a number ofchanges to be written to a single device block.

Periodically, snapshot writes the PITC table and free list to disk,creating a checkpoint in the log and clearing it. This period may varydepending on the number of updates to the PITC. The coalesce processdoes not use the change log.

Snapshot data page I/O may require requests fit within the data pageboundaries. If snapshot encounters an I/O request that spans the pageboundaries it splits the request. It then passes the requests down tothe request handlers. The write and read sections assume that an I/Ofits within the page boundaries. The AP provides the LBA remapping tosatisfy I/O requests.

The AP satisfies all write requests. Snapshot supports two differentwrite sequences for owned and non-owned pages. The different sequenceallow for the addition of pages to the table. FIG. 11 illustrates oneembodiment of a write process having an owned page sequence and anon-owned page sequence.

For the owned page sequence, the process includes the following:

1) Find the table mapping; and

2) Page Owned Write—Remap the LBA and write the data to the RAIDinterface.

A previously written page is the simple write request. Snapshot writesthe data to the page, overwriting the current contents. Only data pagesowned by the AP will be written. Pages owned by other PITC is read only.

For the non-owned page sequence, the process includes the following:

1) Find the table mapping;

2) Read previous Page—Perform a read to the data page such that thewrite request and the read data make up the complete page. This is thestart of the copy on write process.

3) Combine the data—Put the data page read and the write requestpayloads into a single contiguous block.

4) Free List Allocate—Get a new data page pointer from the free list.

5) Write the combined data to the new data page.

6) Commit the new page information to the log.

7) Update the table—Change the LBA remapping in the table to reflect thenew data page pointer. The data page is now owned by the PITC.

Adding a page may require blocking read and write requests until thepage is added to the table. By writing the table updates to disk andkeeping multiple cached copies of the log, snapshot achieves controllercoherency.

With respect to read requests, the AP fulfills all read requests. Usingthe AP table the read request remaps the LBA to the LBA of the datapage. It passes the remapped LBA to the RAID interface to satisfy therequest. A volume may fulfill a read requests for a data page notpreviously written to the volume. These pages are marked with the NULLAddress (All one's) in the PITC table. Requests to this address aresatisfied by the NULL volume and return a constant data pattern. Pagesowned by different PITC may satisfy a read request spanning pageboundaries.

Snapshot uses a NULL volume to satisfy read requests to previouslyunwritten data pages. It returns all zeroes for each sector read. Itdoes not have a RAID device or allocated space. It is anticipated that ablock of all zeroes be kept in memory to satisfy the data requirementsfor a read to the NULL volume. All volumes share the NULL volume tosatisfy read requests.

In one embodiment, a coalesce process removes a PITC and some of itsowned pages from the volume. Removing the PITC creates more availablespace to track new differences. Coalescing compares two adjacent tablesfor differences and keeps only the newer differences. Coalescing occursperiodically or manually according to user configuration.

The process may include two PITC, the source and destination. The rulesin one embodiment for eligible objects are as follows:

1) The source must be the previous PITC to the Destination—the sourcemust be created before the destination.

2) A destination may not simultaneously be a source.

3) A source may not be referred to by multiple PITC. Multiple referencesoccur when a view volume is created from a PITC.

4) The destination may support multiple references.

5) The AP may be a destination, but not a source.

The coalesce process writes all changes to disk and requires nocoherency. If a controller fails, the volume recovers the PITCinformation from disk and resumes the coalesce process.

The process marks two PITC for coalescing and includes the followingsteps:

1) Source state set to coalesce source—the state is committed to diskfor controller failure recovery. At his point source may no longer beaccessed as its data pages may be invalid. The data pages may bereturned to the free list, or ownership is transferred to destination.

2) Destination state set to coalesce destination—the state is committedto disk for controller failure recovery.

3) Load and compare tables—the process moves data page pointers. Freeddata pages immediately are added to the free list.

4) Destination state set to normal—The process is complete.

5) Adjust the list—change the previous of the source next pointer to thedestination. This effectively removes the source from the list.

6) Free the source—return any data pages used for control information tothe free list.

The above process supports the combination of two PITC; It isappreciated to a person skilled in the art that coalesce can be designedto remove multiple PITC and create multiple sources in the single pass.

As shown in FIG. 2, the page pool maintains a data page free list foruse by all volumes associated with the page pool. The free list manageruses data pages from the page pool to commit the free list to permanentstorage. Free list updates come from a number of sources: the writeprocess allocates pages, the control page manager allocates pages, andthe coalescing process returns pages.

The free list may maintain a trigger to automatically expand itself at acertain threshold. The trigger uses the page pool expansion method toadd pages to the page pool. The automatic expansion could be a functionof volume policy. More important data volume would be allowed to expandwhile less important volumes are forced to coalesce.

View volumes provide access to previous points-in-time and supportnormal volume I/O operations. A PITC tracks the difference between PITC,and the view volume allows the user to access the information containedwithin a PITC. A view volume branches from a PITC. View volumes supportrecovery, test, backup operations, etc. View volume creation occursnearly instantaneously as it requires no data copies. The view volumemay require its own AP to support writes to the view volume.

A view taken from the current state of the volume the AP may be copiedfrom the current volume AP. Using the AP, the view volume allows writeoperations to the view volume without modifying the underlying data. TheOS may require a file system or file rebuild to use the data. The viewvolume allocates space from the parent volume for the AP and writtendata pages. The view volume has no associated RAID device information.Deleting the view volume frees the space back to the parent volume.

FIG. 12 illustrates an exemplary snapshot operation showing thetransitions for a volume using snapshot. FIG. 12 depicts a volume withten pages. Each state includes a Read Request Fulfillment list for thevolume. Shaded blocks indicate owned data page pointers.

The transition from the left of the figure (i.e. the initial state) tothe middle of the figure shows the a write to pages 3 and 8. The writeto page 3 requires a change to PITC I (AP). PITC I follows the new pagewrite processing to add page 3 to the table. PITC reads unchangedinformation from page J and uses the drive page B to store the page. Allfuture writes to page 3 in this PITC are handled without moving pages.The write to page 8 depicts the second case for writing to a page. SincePITC I already contains page 8, PITC I writes over that portion of thedata in page 8. For this case, it exists on the drive page C.

The transition from the middle of the figure to the right of the figure(i.e. final state) shows the coalescing of PITC II and III. Snapshotcoalescing involves removing older pages, respectively, whilemaintaining all the changes in both PITC. Both PITC contain pages 3 and8. The process retains the newer pages from PITC II and frees the pagesfrom PITC III, and it returns pages A and D to the free list.

Snapshot allocates data pages from the page pool to store free list andPITC table information. Control Page allocation sub-allocates the datapages to match the sizes needed by the objects.

A volume contains a page pointer for the top of the control pageinformation. From this page all of the other information can be read.

Snapshot tracks the number of pages in-use at certain time intervals.This allows snapshot to predict when the user needs to add more physicaldisk space to the system to prevent snapshot from running out.

Data Progression

In one embodiment of the present invention, data progression (DP) isused to move data gradually to storage space of appropriate cost. Thepresent invention allows a user to add drives when the drives areactually needed. This would significantly reduce the overall cost of thedisk drives.

Data progression moves non-recently accessed data and historicalsnapshot data to less expensive storage. For non-recently accessed data,it gradually reduces the cost of storage for any page that has not beenrecently accessed. It may not move the data to the lowest cost storageimmediately. For historical snapshot data, it moves the read-only pagesto more efficient storage space, such as RAID 5, and to the leastexpensive storage if the page is no longer accessible by a volume.

The other advantages of the data progression of the present inventioninclude maintaining fast I/O access to data currently being accessed,and reducing the need to purchase fast but expensive disk drives.

In operation, data progression determines the cost of storage using thecost of the physical media and the efficiency of RAID devices that areused for data protection. Data progression also determines the storageefficiency and moves the data accordingly. For example, data progressionmay convert RAID 10 to RAID 5 devices to more efficiently use thephysical disk space.

Data progression defines accessible data as data that can be read orwritten by a server at the current time. It uses the accessibility todetermine the class of storage a page should use. A page is read-only ifit belongs to a historical PITC. If the server has not updated the pagein the most recent PITC, the page is still accessible.

FIG. 17 illustrates one embodiment of accessible data pages in a dataprogression operation. The accessible data pages is broken down into thefollowing categories:

-   -   Accessible Recently Accessed—These are the active pages the        volume is using the most.    -   Accessible Non-recently accessed—Read-write pages that have not        been recently used.    -   Historical Accessible—Read-only pages that may be read by a        volume—Applies to snapshot volumes.    -   Historical Non-Accessible—Read-only data pages that are not        being currently accessed by a volume—Applies to snapshot        volumes. Snapshot maintains these pages for recovery purposes,        and the pages are generally placed on the lowest cost storage        possible.

In FIG. 17, three PITC with various owned pages for a snapshot volumeare illustrated. A dynamic capacity volume is represented solely by PITCC. All of the pages are accessible and read-write. The pages may havedifferent access time.

The following table illustrates various storage devices in an order ofincreasing efficiency or decreasing monetary expense. The list ofstorage devices may also follow a general order of slower write I/Oaccess. Data progression computes efficiency of the logical protectedspace divided by the total physical space of a RAID device.

TABLE 1 RAID Types Storage 1 Block Write I/O Type Sub Type EfficiencyCount Usage RAID   50% 2 Primary Read-Write Accessible 10 Storage withrelatively good write performance. RAID 5 3 - Drive 66.6% 4 (2 Read - 2Minimum efficiency gain over Write) RAID 10 while incurring the RAID 5write penalty. RAID 5 5 - Drive   80% 4 (2 Read - 2 Great candidate forRead-only Write) historical information. Good candidate for non-recentlyaccessed writable pages. RAID 5 9 - Drive 88.8% 4 (2 Read - 2 Greatcandidate for read-only Write) historical information. RAID 5 17 - 94.1%4 (2 Read - 2 Reduced gain for efficiency while Drive Write) doublingthe fault domain of a RAID device.

RAID 5 efficiency increases as the number of drives in the stripeincreases. As the number of disks in a stripe increases, the faultdomain increases. The increasing the numbers of drives in a stripe alsoincreases the minimum number of disk necessary to create the RAIDdevices. In one embodiment, data progression does not use a RAID 5stripe size larger than 9 drives due to the increase in the fault domainsize and the limited efficiency increase. Data progression uses RAID 5stripe sizes that are integer multiple of the snapshot page size. Thisallows data progression to perform full-stripe writes when moving pagesto RAID 5 making the move more efficient. All RAID 5 configurations havethe same write I/O characteristic for data progression purpose. Forexample, RAID 5 on an 2.5 inch FC disk may not effectively use theperformance of those disks well. To prevent this combination, dataprogression needs to support the ability to prevent a RAID Type fromrunning on certain disk types. The configuration of data progression canalso prevent the system from using RAID 10 or RAID 5 space.

The types of disks are shown in the following table:

TABLE 2 Disk Types Type Speed Cost Issues 2.5 Inch FC Great High VeryExpensive FC 15K RPM Good Medium Expensive FC 10K RPM Good GoodReasonable Price SATA Fair Low Cheap/Less Reliable

Data progression includes the ability to automatically classify diskdrives that are relative to the drives within a system. The systemexamines a disk to determine its performance relative to the other disksin the system. The faster disks are classified in a higher valueclassification, and the slower disks are classified in a lower valueclassification. As disks are added to the system, the systemautomatically rebalances the value classifications of the disks. Thisapproach handles both the systems that never change and the systems thatchange frequently as new disks are added. The automatic classificationmay place multiple drive types within the same value classification. Ifthe drives are determined to be close enough in value, then they havethe same value.

In one embodiment, a system contains the following drives:

-   -   High—10K FC drive    -   Low—SATA drive

With the addition of a 15K FC drive, Data progression automaticallyreclassifies the disks and demotes the 10K FC drive. This results in thefollowing classifications:

-   -   High—15K FC drive    -   Medium—10K FC drive    -   Low—SATA drive

In another embodiment, a system may have the following drive types:

-   -   High—25K FC drive    -   Low—15K FC drive

Accordingly, the 15K FC drive is classified as the lower valueclassification, whereas the 15K FC drive is classified as the highervalue classification.

If a SATA drive is added to the system, Data progression automaticallyreclassifies the disks. This results in the following classification:

-   -   High—25K FC drive    -   Medium—15K FC drive    -   Low—SATA drive

Data progression may include waterfall progression. Typically, waterfallprogression moves data to a less expensive resource only when theresource becomes totally used. The waterfall progression effectivelymaximizes the use of the most expensive system resources. It alsominimizes the cost of the system. Adding cheap disks to the lowest poolcreates a larger pool at the bottom.

The typical waterfall progression uses RAID 10 space and then a next ofRAID space, such as RAID 5 space. This forces the waterfall to godirectly to RAID 10 of the next class of disks. Alternatively, dataprogression may include mixed RAID waterfall progression as shown inFIG. 24. This alternative data progression method solves the problem ofmaximizing disk space and performance and allows storage to transforminto a more efficient form in the same disk class. This alternativemethod also supports the requirement that RAID 10 and RAID 5 share thetotal resource of a disk class. This may require configuring a fixedpercentage of disk space a RAID level may use for a class of disks.Accordingly, the alternative data progression method maximizes the useof expensive storage, while allowing room for another RAID class tocoexist.

The mixed RAID waterfall also only moves pages to less expensive storagewhen the storage is limited. A threshold value, such as a percentage ofthe total disk space, limits the amount of storage of a certain RAIDtype. This maximizes the use of the most expensive storage in thesystem. When a storage approaches its limit, data progressionautomatically moves the pages to lower cost storage. Data progressionmay provide a buffer for write spikes.

It is appreciated that the above waterfall methods may move pagesimmediately to the lowest cost storage as in some cases, there may be aneed in moving historical and non-accessible pages onto less expensivestorage in a timely fashion. Historical pages may also be instantlymoved to less expensive storage.

FIG. 18 illustrates a flow chart of data progression process 1800. Dataprogression continuously checks each page in the system for its accesspattern and storage cost to determine whether there are data pages tomove. Data progression may also determine if the storage has reached itsmaximum allocation.

Data progression process determines if the page is accessible by anyvolume. The process checks PITC for each volume attached to a history todetermine if the page is referenced. If the page is actively being used,the page may be eligible for promotion or a slow demotion. If the pageis not accessible by any volume, it is moved to the lowest cost storageavailable. Data progression also factors in the time before a PITCexpires. If snapshot schedules a PITC to expire shortly, no pagesprogress. If the page pool is operating in an aggressive mode, the pagesmay progress.

Data progression recent access detection needs to eliminate a burst ofactivity from promoting a page. Data progression separates read andwrite access tracking. This allows data progression to keep data on RAID5 devices that are accessible. Operations like a virus scan or reportingonly read the data. Data progression changes the qualifications ofrecent access when storage is running low. This allows data progressionto more aggressively demote pages. It also helps fill the system fromthe bottom up when storage is running low.

Data progression may aggressively move data pages as system resourcesbecome low. More disks or a change in configuration are still necessaryfor all of these cases. Data progression lengthens the amount of timethat the system may operate in a tight situation. Data progressionattempts to keep the system operational as long as possible. The time iswhen all of its storage classes are out-of-space.

In the case where RAID 10 space is running low, and total available diskspace is running low, data progression may cannibalize RAID 10 diskspace to move to more efficient RAID 5. This increases the overallcapacity of the system at the price of write performance. More disks arestill necessary. If a particular storage class is completely used, dataprogression allows for borrowing on non-acceptable pages to keep thesystem running. For example, if a volume is configured to use RAID 10-FCfor its accessible information, it may allocate pages from RAID 5-FC orRAID 10-SATA until more RAID 10-FC space is available.

Data progression also supports compression to increase the perceivedcapacity of the system. Compression may only be used for historicalpages that are not accessed, or as the storage of recovery information.Compression appears as another class of storage near the bottom ofstorage costs.

As shown in FIG. 25, the page pool essentially contains a free list anddevice information. The page pool needs to support multiple free lists,enhanced page allocation schemes, and the classification of free lists.The page pool maintains a separate free list for each class of storage.The allocation schemes allows a page to be allocated from one of manypools while setting minimum or maximum allowed classes. Theclassification of free lists comes from the device configuration. Eachfree list provides its own counters for statistics gathering anddisplay. Each free list also provides the RAID device efficiencyinformation for the gathering of storage efficiency stats.

In one embodiment, the device list may require the additional ability totrack the cost of the storage class. The combination determines theclass of the storage. This would occur if the user would like more orless granularity with the configured classes.

FIG. 26 illustrates one embodiment of a high performance database whereall accessible data only resides on 2.5 FC drives, even if it is notrecently accessed. Non-accessible historical data is moved to RAID 5fiber channel.

FIG. 27 illustrates one embodiment of a MRI image volume whereaccessible storage is SATA RAID 10 and RAID 5 for this dynamic volume.If the image is not recently accessed, the image is moved to RAID 5. Newwrites then go to RAID 10 initially. FIG. 19 illustrates one embodimentof a compressed page layout. Data progression implements compression bysub-allocating fixed sized data pages. The sub-allocation informationtracks the free portions of the page, and the location of the allocatedportions of the page. Data progression may not predict the efficiency ofcompression and may handle variable sized pages within itssub-allocation.

Compressed page may significantly impact CPU performance. For writeaccess, a compressed page would require the entire page be decompressedand recompressed. Therefore, pages actively being accessed are notcompressed, and returned to their non-compressed state. Writes may benecessary in conditions where storage is extremely limited.

The PITC remap table points to the sub-allocation information and ismarked to indicate the page that is compressed. Accessing a compressedpage may require a higher I/O count than a non-compressed page. Theaccess may require the reading of the sub-allocation information toretrieve the location of the actual data. The compressed data may beread from the disk and decompressed on the processor.

Data progression may require compression to be able to decompress partsof the entire page. This allows data progression read access to onlydecompress small portions of the page. The read-ahead feature of readcache may help with the delays of compression. A single decompressionmay handle a number of server I/O. Data progression marks pages that arenot good candidates for compression so that it does not continuallyattempt to compress a page.

FIG. 20 illustrates one embodiment of data progression in a high leveldisk drive system in accordance with the principles of the presentinvention. Data Progression does not change the external behavior of avolume or the operation of the data path. Data progression may requiremodification to a page pool. The page pool essentially contains a freelist and device information. The page pool needs to support multiplefree lists, enhanced page allocation schemes, and the classification offree lists. The page pool maintains a separate free list for each classof storage. The allocation schemes allows a page to be allocated fromone of many pools while setting minimum or maximum allowed classes. Theclassification of free lists may come from the device configuration.Each free list provides its own counters for statistics gathering anddisplay. Each free list also provides the RAID device efficiencyinformation for the gathering of storage efficiency statistics.

The PITC identifies candidates for movement and blocks I/O to accessiblepages when they move. Data progression continually examines the PITC forcandidates. The accessibility of pages continually changes due to serverI/O, new snapshot page updates, and view volume creation/deletion. Dataprogression also continually checks volume configuration changes andsummarize the current list of page classes and counts. This allows dataprogression to evaluate the summary and determine if there are possiblypages to be moved.

Each PITC presents a counter for the number of pages used for each classof storage. Data progression uses this information to identify a PITCthat makes a good candidate to move pages when a threshold is reached.

RAID allocates a device from a set of disks based on the cost of thedisks. RAID also provides an API to retrieve the efficiency of a deviceor potential device. It also needs to return information on the numberof I/O required for a write operation. Data progression may also requirea RAID NULL to use third-party RAID controllers as a part of dataprogression. RAID NULL may consume an entire disk and merely act as apass through layer.

Disk manager may also automatically determine and store the diskclassification. Automatically determining the disk classification mayrequire changes to SCSI Initiator.

From the above description and drawings, it will be understood by thoseof ordinary skill in the art that the particular embodiments shown anddescribed are for purposes of illustration only and are not intended tolimit the scope of the present invention. Those of ordinary skill in theart will recognize that the present invention may be embodied in otherspecific forms without departing from its spirit or essentialcharacteristics. References to details of particular embodiments are notintended to limit the scope of the invention.

1-26. (canceled)
 27. A disk drive system manager, comprising: means forclassifying each of a plurality of storage devices based on the cost;means for checking data on the storage devices to determine whetherthere is data to be moved from one classification of storage device toanother; and means for moving data stored on one or more storage devicesof one classification to one or more storage devices of anotherclassification; wherein data is moved to a lower cost storage devicebased on a decrease in the access pattern of the data.
 28. The diskdrive system manager of claim 27, wherein the cost of each storagedevice is based on efficiency of the storage device relative to theother storage devices.
 29. The disk drive system manager of claim 27,wherein the cost of each storage device is based on storage capacity ofthe storage device.
 30. The disk drive system manager of claim 27,wherein the cost of each storage device is based on physical cost of thestorage device.
 31. The disk drive system manager of claim 27, whereindata is moved to a lower cost storage device if a substantial portion ofthe storage space on a higher cost storage device is used up.
 32. Thedisk drive system manager of claim 27, wherein data is moved to a highercost storage device based on an increase in the access pattern of thedata.
 33. The disk drive system manager of claim 32, wherein a burst ofaccess activity for the data is differentiated from an increase in theaccess pattern of the data which causes the data to be moved to a highercost storage device.
 34. The disk drive system manager of claim 27,wherein the plurality of storage devices comprise different disk types.35. The disk drive system manager of claim 27, wherein the accesspattern comprises separate read and write access tracking.
 36. A methodof data progression in a disk drive system, comprising: classifying eachof a plurality of storage devices based on the cost; checking data onthe storage devices to determine whether there is data to be moved fromone classification of storage device to another; and moving data storedon one or more storage devices of one classification to one or morestorage devices of another classification; wherein data is moved to alower cost storage device based on a decrease in the access pattern ofthe data.
 37. The method of claim 36, wherein data is moved to a highercost storage device based on an increase in the access pattern of thedata.
 38. The method of claim 37, wherein a burst of access activity forthe data is differentiated from an increase in the access pattern of thedata which causes the data to be moved to a higher cost storage device.39. The method of claim 36, wherein the cost of each storage device isbased on efficiency of the storage device relative to the other storagedevices.
 40. The method of claim 36, wherein the cost of each storagedevice is based on storage capacity of the storage device.
 41. Themethod of claim 36, wherein the cost of each storage device is based onphysical cost of the storage device.
 42. The method of claim 36, whereindata is moved to a lower cost storage device if a substantial portion ofthe storage space on a higher cost storage device is used up.
 43. Themethod of claim 36, wherein the plurality of storage devices comprisedifferent disk types.
 44. The method of claim 36, wherein the accesspattern comprises separate read and write access tracking.